Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol and Washington, DC

Washington DC hopes to reap the benefits of its starring role in Dan Brown's
The Lost Symbol, says Rachel Ray in Washington.

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Lost Symbol pilgrims should visit The House of the Temple, headquarters of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, once voted the fifth most beautiful building in the worldPhoto: WIKI

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Inside the stately Rotunda, the symbolic and physical heart of the Capitol Photo: GETTY

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Robert Langdon and Katherine Solomon seek refuge in the Washington National Cathedral, the sixth largest cathedral in the world

By Rachel Ray, in Washington

1:17PM BST 29 Sep 2009

Washington is gearing up to capitalise on the success of Dan Brown’s new novel, which is set in the city.

Hellish: Angels and Demons

Perhaps in a bid to shed the city's reputation as the most boring capital in the world to visit, the District of Columbia is running a TV commercial in every major advertising market in the United States, enticing tourists to come and explore Washington’s secret side. Shunning the capital’s stuffy ways, The Dupont Hotel, which features in the commercial, is offering a 'Lost Symbol' package that it is expanding to include a limo-driven Lost Symbol tour around the compact European-style walking city.

About six blocks away from Dupont Circle, staff at the House of the Temple, headquarters of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry are also braced for change. With a typical tourist count of about 5,000 annually, they are anticipating a ten-fold increase to 50,000 this year. In 1931, the House of the Temple was voted the fifth most beautiful building in the world by the Association of American Architects. Arguably the columned, sphinx-guarded building is the most mysterious-looking in the city and is the site of secret rituals in The Lost Symbol, including drinking from a human skull.

For Lost Symbol enthusiasts visiting Washington, other real, publicly accessible places where the thriller’s major action takes place include:

United States Capitol Billed as one of the most architecturally impressive and symbolically important buildings in the world, this structure that houses both the Senate and the House of Representatives is located at the east end of the National Mall. Protagonist Robert Langdon and villain Malakh enter the Capitol through the spanking new subterranean Visitors’ Centre.

Up one level is Statuary Hall, a gallery of statues of notable figures contributed by the 50 states, and the stately Rotunda, the symbolic and physical heart of the Capitol that connects the Senate and House sides. Official Capitol ceremonies such as art dedications and the lying-in-state of eminent U.S. citizens take place in the Rotunda.

Also in the Rotunda is the The Apotheosis of Washington, a fresco in which the first US President, a Mason, is dressed in white robes, attended by 13 maidens and is ascending on a cloud to transform into a god. [Watch out for severed hands lying on the floor.]

Library of Congress Reading Room Off the Mall and a few blocks east of the Capitol, the Library of Congress is the world’s largest library and the U.S. Congress research facility. Protagonists Robert Langdon and Katherine Solomon escape from CIA agents on a conveyor belt in the library. Don’t try it yourself; the conveyor belt has been broken for years.

National Gallery of Art West of the Capitol on the National Mall is the world class National Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institution. While the most viewed permanent collection painting to date has been da Vinci’s Ginevra de Benci - the National Gallery owns the only da Vinci in the Americas - that stat may soon switch to Albrecht Durer’s Melencolia I, an over-analyzed, symbol-saturated work that includes an emaciated dog, an angel, and weird geometric shapes. According to Robert Langdon, Durer’s work was very important to the Masons and provides clues.

Freedom Plaza A few blocks north of the National Mall at Pennsylvania Avenue and 14th Street, Freedom Plaza’s stones are inlaid with a depiction of the floor plans of the Capitol. The plaza was renamed for Martin Luther King, Jr., who wrote most of his “I Have a Dream” speech a few blocks west at the Willard Hotel. There are no clues at Freedom Plaza, but Robert Langdon gets to explain it to Katherine while they’re in a cab fleeing the CIA.

Washington National Cathedral Several miles north of the National Mall on Wisconsin Avenue is the world’s sixth largest cathedral, the site of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last speech and President Ronald Reagan’s state funeral. Known for its beautiful stained glass windows, one of them has a rock from the moon imbedded in it. Robert Langdon and Katherine Solomon seek refuge with blind Dean Galloway and major steps are taken in solving the mystery - with the CIA nipping at their heels.

Washington Monument On the west end of the National Mall, at 15th Street and Constitution, the Washington Monument, named for President George Washington, is the capital’s most prominent structure and own Egyptian obelisk.

The Lost Symbol would not be complete without Robert and Katherine making a trip to the top of this 555-foot tall structure and its observation desk that allows views of over thirty miles in all directions. About 1,700 people a day get free tickets to ride the elevator, the only way permitted to go to the top. If the elevator malfunctions, which it has in the past, it takes about one hour to walk down the 900 steps.

There’s another interesting bit of symbolism in The Lost Symbol that is visible on the good old American greenback - the $1 bill. In accordance with the mystical intonation “as above, so below”, which is referred to throughout the novel, an inverse triangle imposed over the pyramid design on the currency creates a five 5-pointed star that points to five letters - M-A-S-O-N. It's a clue you don’t even have to leave home for.